


And I Must Scream

by coffeeandchocolate



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Cannibalism, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-26
Updated: 2014-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-06 06:38:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1848115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeeandchocolate/pseuds/coffeeandchocolate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alloran watches, unable to move, unable to scream, as the Yeerk controlling his body devours Prince Elfangor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And I Must Scream

**Author's Note:**

> This was a present for albaoaurora. I thought I'd share it here as well as on Tumblr.

_How long has it been since you’ve seen another Andalite?_ Esplin taunted me.  _They’re repulsed by you, you know._

I did not respond. He could feel my loathing, took pleasure in it. What was the point in saying anything?

The Yeerk strode purposefully out of the Blade Ship. Towards the fallen Andalite.

<Well, well,> he said, focusing his - our -my eyes on the warrior.

 _Mine,_ he reminded me.  _My eyes._

 _Never,_ I snarled back, unable to restrain myself any longer. But then I realized who it was on the ground before me. Had I been able to control my eyes, they would have widened in horror.

For this was not just any Andalite. This was the  _aristh_ Elfangor,  _aristh_ no more.

His actions had resulted in my infestation, and for a time, I had been angry. But he had been under my command, been my responsibility. Now he was dying, and my body would be used to end his life.

<What have we here? A meddling Andalite?>  Esplin pretended to examine the ruins of Elfagor’s ship. Pointless. He had known this Andalite’s identity from the moment I had recognized him. <Ah, but no ordinary Andalite warrior. Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, if I am not mistaken. An honor to meet you. You’re a legend. How many of our fighters have you shredded? Seven, or was it eight by the time the battle ended?>

 _Eleven,_ I thought. When I had met the boy, he had been incompetent. He had grown, changed a great deal since then.

<The very last Andalite in this sector of space,> said Esplin, ignoring me. <Yes, I’m afraid your Dome ship has been completely destroyed. Completely. I watched it burn as it fell into the atmosphere of this little world.>

And now for the first time, Elfangor spoke. A simple sentence. A promise. <There will be others.>

<Yes, and when they come it will be too late. This world will be mine. My own contribution to the Yeerk Empire, our greatest conquest. And then I’ll be Visser One.>

<What do you want with these humans?> Elfangor asked. <You have your Taxxon allies. You have your Hork-Bajir slaves. And other slaves from other worlds. Why these people?>

_Hork-Bajir._

My greatest failure. What had their slaughter accomplished? I hadn’t stopped the Yeerks. I hadn’t even slowed them. Now I, too, was a slave, and would never be able to stop murdering the helpless.

<Because there are so many, and they are so weak,> Esplin sneered. <Billions of bodies! And they have no idea what’s happening. With this many hosts we can spread throughout the universe, unstoppable! Billions of us. We’ll have to build a thousand new Yeerk pools just to raise Yeerks for half this number of bodies. Face it, Andalite, you have fought well and bravely. But you have lost.>

I wanted to go home.

I imagined myself there, thousands of light years away, grazing with my wife and children. Jahar held my hand in her own…

_You are never going home._

Esplin moved closer to the fallen Prince. Elfangor struggled, barely managing to climb to his hooves. I felt a rush of an odd emotion. It took a moment for me to place it  It had been a very longtime since I had felt anything of the sort.

_Pride._

I was  _proud,_ not of myself or anything I had done, but of  _Elfangor,_ the fool that had become a Prince. He had created the Abomination, but now, injured and dying and suffering, he faced him, the Yeerk that wore my face, without flinching.

<I promise you one thing, Prince Elfangor - when we have this planet, with its rich harvest of bodies, we will move against the Andalite home world. I will personally hunt down your family. And I will personally oversee the placement of my most faithful lieutenants in their heads. I hope that they will resist, so I can hear their minds scream.>

 _As you did,_ Esplin added to me. I imagined stepping on him.

Elfangor struck! His tail whipped towards me, amazingly fast for one so badly injured. Unfortunately, he wasn’t fast enough.

Esplin twisted my head, and Elfagor’s tail blade sank into my shoulder. Esplin screamed my pain to the sky.

Elfangor’s ship fired on the Bug fighters. The Yeerks returned fire on a shouted order from Esplin, destroying the small fighter.

<Take the Andalite,> Esplin ordered. <Hold him for me.>

 _No!_ I screamed, but I had no power over my voice, much less my limbs. Three Hork-Bajir grabbed Elfangor, restraining him. And Esplin began to morph.

 _No,_ I repeated, but now it was softer, not so much a scream as a pleading moan, a prayer. I knew what was going to happen, and it horrified me.

And now the morph was complete, and I stood towering above Elfangor and the Controllers. Esplin reached out and grabbed my former protege with a tentacle, lifting him into the air.

 _No, no, no, no, no,_ I chanted. I felt sick. This was not the first time Esplin had done this to me. But this was an Andalite, this was someone I had known and taught. He was making me a cannibal.

I missed my grass. I missed home.

 _Ah,_ said Esplin, sounding satisfied, even as Elfangor struck again and again.  _There’s the resistance I missed._

I pictured slicing the worm in two with my tail blade, but it would do no good.

He dropped Elfangor into my mouth.

I screamed.

My teeth ripped him to pieces. I could hear him screaming along with me.

Esplin swallowed Elfangor, then demorphed.

All the while, I screamed.


End file.
